Vanderbilt Men’s Basketball: We just want more

When my father’s best friend, who was like a second father to me after my dad passed away in 1977, was eulogized at First Presbyterian Church in Nashville, the minister said, “We know he’s in a better place, but we just wanted more.”

That’s the way I feel about our Vanderbilt Mens’ Basketball team. We all just want more of them, and we want watch these guys all the way till the night of Monday, April 7th in the Alamodome in San Antonio at the National Championship Game. This group of players are 100 percent class in everything they do. Their heart, their dedication, their competitiveness, and their personal integrity shines brightly out on the floor. And that has been enhanced even more the past three games we’ve been victorious in against then-No.23 Ole Miss on Saturday, February 22nd; then @ No.12 Texas A&M last Wednesday Night, February 26th, and, most recently, in a spellbinding victory at Memorial on Saturday, a 97-93 overtime victory over No.19 Missouri.

March is here and our team is locked, loaded and homed in on winning every basketball

game that is in front of them starting tonight with a 9 o’clock tip against Arkansas on the

SEC Network. But let’s look back at Saturday versus Mizzou for a minute. It was epic.

Jason Edwards sank a critical trifecta with 12 seconds left to keep us in the game, cutting

the deficit to 79-78, Tigers. After Caleb Grill, a terrific shooter for Missouri

who poured in 28 points, sank both free throws to put the Tigers up 81-78, Memorial Magic

struck again in the person of Tyler Nickel, our great small forward, who drained a three with

four seconds left to tie the game at 81, unbelievingly. The clock ran out, we went into

overtime and won it from there, a 97-93 final. There were several heroic performances. Our

awesome undersized, but does it matter? (That’s a flat out NO), power forward Chris Manon

scored 23 and pulled down 11 boards. Chris has been terrific lately. Our phenomenal point

guard, A.J. Hoggard finished with 21 and 6 dimes. A.J. is always an awesome distributor of

the basketball and if he can shoot like that, we’re a very dangerous team. A.J. is a leader

and a difference maker. Edwards finished with 17 points and four assists and sank two huge

free throws. A.J. was 8-of-8 from the line. We were 21 of 24 from the stripe, 88%, which

was major because Mizzou was 28-of-35, 80%, and shot 11 more free throws than we did.

So every point from the stripe mattered. Nickel finished with 12 points, sank 3 triples and

was 3-of 4 from the line. Manon was 7-of-8 from the line in his spectacular performance.

Jaylen Carey and Devin McGlockton only finished with 7 points each, but Carey finished

with 10 boards and Devin added 8. We out-rebounded them, 39-28, always a major stat.

Tyler Tanner only had four points, but they were both critical floaters that were clutch plays

during the game. MJ Collins finished with 7, but connected on a critical 3 in the second half

towards the latter part of the game.

So, a total team effort by a team that exemplifies just that,. It’s a team game and our player understand that. Just spectacular.

But we want to keep the winning going. Lunardi has us as a 9 seed in the East playing the

No.8 seeded UConn Huskies in Raleigh. But the goal right now is to defeat Arkansas

tonight at 9. It’s been a thrilling year with this team, and it’s hopefully going to keep getting

better. Gotta take care of business tonight. Then it’s @ Georgia Saturday at 11 AM CT on the

SEC Network.

From there it’s the SEC Tournament in Nashville at Bridgestone Arena, Wednesday, March

12th through Sunday, 16th.

We are now 20-9 overall and 8-8 in the SEC, tied for 8th in the

conference. There’s more work to be done and I can’t wait to see these guys

do more work. I know we all are.

Women’s Basketball homes in on the Postseason

Our Vanderbilt Women’s Basketball season finished off the regular season with a

resounding 100-59 victory over Missouri at Columbia.

We now head into the SEC Tournament as the No. 8 seed. The tournament starts

Wednesday at Secours Wellness Arena ihn Greenville, S.C. We’ll play Thursday at 10 AM CT

versus the winner of No.16 Texas A&M and No.9 seed Tennessee. The game will be

broadcast by the SEC Network. The Championship Game is Sunday, March 9th, at 2 PM CT

on ESPN.

We compiled a regular season record of 21-9 overall and 8-8 in the SEC, good for

a tie for 8th in the conference. We finished tied with Tennessee in the standings, but

prevailed in a tiebreaker by virtue of our 71-70 victory over the Vols on Sunday, January

19th at Memorial.

In our Missouri victory, our tremendous freshman Mikayla Blakes poured in 29 points on 11-

of-17 from the field and 6-of-10 from trifecta. Senior guard Iyana Moore added 18 and 7

assists and sophomore forward Khamil Pierre added 16 points and 10 boards. So, awesome

effort from the team.

According to ESPN Bracketologist Charlie Creme, we are an 8 seed in the Spokane Regional

and would face 9 seed South Dakota State in the first round. That’s fluid, of course.

Got a lot of work left and I know our women are excited about it. Coach Shea Ralph is

building a powerhouse program on the West End, just like Coach Mark Byington is, and the

next step is going deep this March; both in the SEC and NCAA Tournaments.

As Coach Corbin says, we just want to have a good practice today and be successful on

Thursday. I’ll be in touch soon.